What, Me Shill?
For most its life so far, MAD accepted no advertising. Founder and publisher Bill Gaines decided early on (after a brief experience with ads in the magazine) that it wasn’t worth even the appearance of bias — having readers think you’re going easy on would-be targets just because they’re advertisers, or conversely, that you’re going out of your way to give them “the MAD treatment” they otherwise wouldn’t merit, to prove that you’re not going easy on them. The No-Ads policy became something of a badge of honor, to MAD staffers, freelance contributors like me, and even many of the readers themselves.
All that changed in 2001 when MAD — the corporate MAD now run by a division of a division of soul-less media behemoth TIME-WARNER — started putting ads in the magazine, big time. This event is the one usually cited by long-time MAD fans as the thing that “Bill Gaines’ body is spinning in its grave” over. (I never liked the “Bill spinning in his grave”-meme. Not only is it over-the-top and a cliche — I think it’s impossible since I’m pretty sure he was cremated!) But Bill’s problem wasn’t with advertising per se…after all, he willingly accepted ads at first. The way I understood it, Bill’s problem was what advertising would, could, or did do to the rest of your magazine. Especially a magazine like MAD.
So, I don’t think it’s the mere presence of ads now that would set Bill spinning. No, I think if anything were capable of doing that, it would be what they’ve done beyond just accepting ads in the 7 years since. Apparently someone at MAD (most likely the corporate suits rather than the editors, who seem more like hostages now) has decided that, not only are they crossing the Rubicon of “allowing advertisers to affect content”…hell, they’re building a modern 12-lane suspension toll bridge over it!
Exhibit A: something called “Go Fetch!” – 2-3 pages per issue of little ads for new toys, games, DVDs, etc., which were semi-disguised as ‘things we the MAD editors just happened to stumble upon and thought you might like to know about.’ Yeah, right. They ended every quasi-mini-ad with a joke or a “slam” about the product, as if that excused them. (Funny thing, though: the “slams” were never harsh or pointed enough to risk actually offending the paying advertisers themselves.) “Go Fetch!” ran for only a year, then stopped abruptly. Maybe they had a sudden attack of conscience; maybe there were too many reader complaints about it; maybe the ads didn’t work or they couldn’t sell any more of them.
Then, there’s Exhibit B. (THIS is the one that has “potential Bill-spinner” written all over it!) In MAD#486 (Feb 2008), starting on p. 25, there’s an very odd 8-page spread that opens with the big splash title, “MAD Presents ‘The Whitest Kids U’Know’” [they're a young comedy troupe with a show on IFC] — and then in much smaller type, “Special Advertising Section.” Ah, well, you say — if they’re going to accept ads, good for them on finding a single advertiser to cough up for 8 contiguous pages. But wait - flipping over to the following pages, you see that this is no regular “ad”…it looks exactly like a series of regular MAD articles, in fact it has the regular bylines, and work, of MAD artists Herman Meija, Tom Bunk, Drew Friedman, Jack Syracuse, and Tom Richmond; and MAD writer Dick DeBartolo (not to pick on any of them; they do their usual fine job on this “assignment”). It dawns on you that what you’re looking at are “pseudo-MAD-articles” written and/or drawn, to order, AS IF this comedy troupe were well-known enough for MAD to decide to “do” them. Which, of course, they aren’t. Otherwise MAD would have done them on their own, without being paid to, and without having to put “Special Advertising Section” on it.
There was an old line around the editorial offices - whenever people asked how they could get MAD to make fun of them, the answer was: “Simple: become famous and do something stupid.” Now, I guess that recipe has become, “Make us a cash offer; we’ll devote up to 20% of the magazine to you or your product; and we’ll even make it look exactly like our regular content!”
Sounds to me like the new MAD is turning into exactly the thing that the old MAD mercilessly ridiculed, mocked, and sneered at. But, what do I know?